Sweet Potato Sheperd's Pie

Sorry for the long delay - hope you all had a wonderful holiday and happy (almost) new year!

This is from quite a while ago, but here goes:

 Cast of characters:
-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and steamed
-3 T coconut milk 
-6 carrots, peeled and sliced
-1 onion, chopped 
-1 can hominy
-1 cup corn
-1 cup peas
-1/2 can of low sodium mushroom soup
-1/2 cup milk

1. Roast carrots and onion at 400 for 20 minutes.
2. Combine carrots and onion, hominy, and other veggies. Pour combined soup/milk mixture.
3. Mash sweet potato with coconut milk. 
3. Pour vegetables into pie plate, and top with mashed sweet potato.
4. Bake at 350 until bubbling. If you are patient, using the broiler to try to brown the sweet potatoes a bit wouldn't hurt ;).

 It's not the most beautiful meal I have ever made, but it made a LOT, and it was perfect for a cold day.

Hope you have a wonderful time ringing in the new year! 

Cranberry Muffins

Cranberries have always been one of my favorite things in baked goods. This may be thanks to my mother's cranberry cake, which has held my #1 favorite fall/winter dessert ever since I can remember. Either way, cranberries are good by me. So I couldn't resist when cranberries went on sale after Thanksgiving, and I made these muffins:

Cast of characters:
Muffins
-2 c. flour
-2/3 c. sugar
-1.5 tsp. baking powder
-2/3 c. milk
-4 T. butter, melted
-1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 egg
-2 c. fresh cranberries
-Spices - i added 1/2 tsp cinnamon, some cloves, and some nutmeg


Streusel

1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 T. butter
2 T. light brown sugar

1. Mix dry ingredients together. Add in butter, vanilla, and eggs. Fold in cranberries.
2. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way, top with streusel topping (blended together, of course).
3. Bake at 350 for 17-19 minutes.

Hope you have a lovely weekend! 

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Cast of characters:
-2 cans no salt added tomatoes
-1 can green chiles
-1 can enchilada sauce
-2 cups low sodium chicken broth 
-1/2 pound black beans, cooked
-1 cup frozen corn
-1 pound chicken breast 

-4 T Neufchatel
-1 potato, steamed

To garnish: 
-cheddar cheese
-cilantro
-corn tortillas
-avocado


1. Spray the chicken with a bit of olive oil, and some chili powder. Bake in a 400 degree oven until cooked through, then shred with forks.
2. Add black beans, tomato, enchilada sauce, corn, and green chiles, along with the chicken. Simmer for a bit, then take a bit of broth and blend the neufchatel and potato with it, then add back to the soup.
3. Add chili powder, salt, and pepper to taste.
4. Chop cilantro, slice avocado and tortillas. Shred cheese. Eat! 

And a shot of Gertie's birthday celery for good measure.  One of these days I will hopefully get a good video of her, but her eating celery makes both Robin and I laugh out loud. Every time.

Gertie is 2!

It is nearing finals. At least that's my excuse for not posting. I will work on a post about Chicken Enchilada soup, but now  I give you a snoozing Gertie:

Today our sweet girl is 2. Hard to believe we've had her for a year and a half. It seems simultaneously like it can't possibly have been that long, and like I can't imagine our house without her. So today, here's to a puppy who I find to be one of the coolest pups around. Happy Birthday, G!

P.S. I can't seem to keep up with anything lately. Today, I am mostly grateful for a sweet puppy. Thirty days aren't going to happy, but today I am also grateful for: 
-Sixty degree days for running with our puppy
-Good coffee in the morning
-Delicious Indian food (thanks parents!)
-Bedtime

A Simple Soup

I normally like to make spicy soups, blended soups, or creamy soups. But this soup reminds me about how delicious simple can be. I had a friend from my program who had her gall bladder removed, and consequently needs to be on a low-fat diet for a while. Spicy also seemed like a bad way to go, so here's what Robin thought I should title "gall bladder soup". I made a ton - 2 meals for us and several for them.

 Cast of characters:
-Cauliflower, cut into florets
-4 sweet potatoes
-A dozen or so carrots
-Onion
-Black beans
-3 cans no-salt added tomatoes
-4 cups vegetable broth (or four cups water and a tiny amount of vegetable bouillon, as I did)
-Garlic powder and black pepper, to taste


1. Roast the cauliflower, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onion. Keep in mind I made a LOT of soup, so adjust accordingly if you'd like a normal amount of soup.
2. Cook black beans (I got sufficiently motivated to use dried beans this time!) Once I cooked the vegetables and the beans, I chopped the veggies up and put everything in a pot to cook the following day.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, and boil for a bit.

So there you have it: gall bladder soup. We really need to work on our creative process to concoct some better names over here ;).

Gratuitous Gertie shot for good measure:

Hope you have a lovely week! 

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Otherwise known as "Cheesagna" if you are Mr. C. This may have had something to do with my emphasis of cheese in getting him to eat it, as opposed to the butternut squash and spinach.

Regardless, this is not a health food. But here goes:

Cast of characters:
-1 box of lasagna noodles (I used the no-bake kind, because anything with too many steps scares me)
-1 butternut squash
-1/2 bag frozen spinach
-Mozzarella cheese
-Low-fat cottage cheese
-Basil, garlic, etc. 

For white sauce:
-3 T flour
-3 T butter
-1 cup milk

1. Roast the butternut squash. Apparently you can do this whole? I never have, but let me know if it works. because my life would be a little bit better if I never had to hack through a butternut squash again.
2. Make the white sauce (bechamel if you're fancy): cook butter and flour as a roux, add milk. Thanks Dad for teaching me that so many years ago: I finally succeed at white sauce.
3. Scrape out the butternut squash when it is cool enough to touch. Mash with 1/2 bag of frozen spinach. 
4. Mix cottage cheese with basil, garlic, and whatever other spices you might want.
5. Assemble the lasagna, adding mozzarella as you see fit. Finish with the end of the white sauce and some mozzarella.
6. Bake covered at 350 until for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and cook another 15ish.

As a toddler, I take Mr. C. as an authority on taste, and he asked for more. As you can tell from the ingredients, it is dairy heavy. And just generally heavy. But pretty good nonetheless.  

Sorry for only one picture, but hey. Hope your week is going well!

Apple Cake

I love pretty much all apple-based desserts. However, this recipe had a couple of key attributes that made me extra excited: no slicing the apples in any sort of pretty fashion (as I have to for a decent looking tart), and I got to use my "tube pan" (previously known as "angel food cake pan" as I had never made anything else in it). I used this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen.

From Smitten Kitchen:
6(ish) apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 T baking powder
Dash of salt (or 1 tsp if you are following her recipe)

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs


1. Chop apples, mix with the cinnamon and 5 T sugar (I used less, but it probably should depend on how sweet your apples are?)
2. Combine sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla, and orange juice.
3. Add combined mixture of flour, baking powder, salt.
4. Add eggs, one at a time.
5. Pour half of batter into greased pan. Top with half of apple mixture. Add remaining batter, then top with the rest of the apples.

 6. Bake at 350 for approximately 90 minutes, or until tester comes out clean (mine took longer...)

It takes a while to cook, because it is quite thick. Mine could have used a couple less minutes in the oven, but it was still good. And unlike a lot of cakes, even better the next day.


8. Sunshine.

9. Apple cider.

10. Promises of holidays. Especially in my current academic world, I look forward to a bit of a break at Thanksgiving and a real break at Christmas!

Now back to proposal writing. Hope you all have lovely weekends!